Saturday, October 29, 2011

Many people have asked me what I would buy for a new baby and what I would skip now that I have Baby A, so I thought I would write a few posts on my favorite baby items, which were helpful, and which were pointless for us. I will break it down from 0-3 months and 3-6 months. When she hits 9 months, I will do a 6-9 and so forth.

If you have any questions about any of the things I mention, feel free to ask. If you would like a review on any particular item, I can definitely do that also!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Since I have had my daughter, I am always looking for fun ideas in the kitchen. I love to cook, and I (of course) love to eat. Even though she is not old enough to have fun with me in the kitchen, I am constantly searching for fun and creative recipes for when she is old enough. I really can not wait for that stage. Even though I absolutely love her as a newborn and infant, I do really look forward to her growing every single day.

I recently found some cute ideas, so I thought I would share them with you (and keep them here for future reference).

Most of these recipes have come from FamilyFun.com. I definitely recommend you check it out if you have not already.

Another favorite was the A Mwa-ha-ha-ha Midday Meal. Now, this would be for a school-aged children who takes a lunch to school each day. I thought this was such a cute idea!

Ingredients:

Sandwich

Red Pepper

Directions:

Use a paring knife to cut a sandwich into a skull or bite-size fingers.

I have not really been updating about my fitness like I use to do. Since I got pregnant, I never really discussed my workout routine or diet because there was no need for it. At least not in the way I had been doing it. Most of you know that throughout my pregnancy, I did work out. I was actually in labor while working out and did not even know - 40 weeks pregnant. Once I had the baby, I immediately headed back to the gym after a week, with Baby A in tow. When Mr. Man deployed, my goal was to loose all of the baby weight while he was gone. Then things happened with breastfeeding and Baby A's pediatrician did not want me working out until we got it situated.

To this day, nothing that we have done has helped the situation, so I have gone back to working out. I am not doing two a days right now, but I will gradually go back to doing it. I can't really say that I am dieting either, other than the natural healthy lifestyle that I have always chosen.

Now that Baby A is almost 7 months old, I feel I have a bit more freedom with working out. There is never any doubt or guilt in my head on whether I should be doing it or not since we are still nursing. I thought I would write an intro post on my goals, where I want myself, and how I plan to do it.

First off, my goal is just to get back in shape at this point. I am carrying around a little bit more weight than I was use to, so running and doing certain activities are still hard on me. I have no goal of "losing a certain amount of weight" because - to me - my weight is just a number. It absolutely means nothing. My goal is to loose size and tighten. Even though I can fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes, I still know I could do some work. My legs, for example, are a weakness of mine so I would like to do some work on those. I measured myself the other day and began taking pictures. The pictures will be saved for later to show as a progression because I definitely do not feel comfortable showing those pictures right now, not while I still look similar to them. But I will show them at some point.

I started a work out plan a couple of weeks back with high intensity, high pace, and a lot of cardio. I have a set Monday - Friday work out plan, and I stick to it. It has made me feel so much better about doing this and achieving it because I know what I expect of myself and I know what to do without changing my plan every day like I did before.

As far as where I want myself, I would like to loose this extra that I have by the beginning of the year. I know I can easily achieve this with the work out plan and "dieting" I have been doing. Now remember, the word diet just refers to the food I eat. I am not on a particular diet. I try my best to eat as clean as possible but still by reaching all of the nutrients my body needs as a nursing Mom. I can not really put a weight limit to it because I do not pay much attention to my weight. Instead, I look at my body fat percentage. I would like to be sitting between 16-17% by the beginning of next year, which is reachable. I would like to loose 3 inches from my hips and 2 inches from my stomach. Even if I did not loose those inches and gained more muscle, I would be 100% happy. This is a great way to build more muscle actually. By using the excess fat to feed the muscle.

All of this has been working for me. I am averaging 2-3 pounds per week although I just started measuring myself. My clothes are actually beginning to fall off of me, so I know what I am doing is working and will continue to work. It takes discipline and determination to make it happen, but I know in the end I will be much more confident and much more happy.

Stick with me to watch my progress and see the changes I make over the next few months!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Since I have had my daughter, I am always looking for fun ideas in the kitchen. I love to cook, and I (of course) love to eat. Even though she is not old enough to have fun with me in the kitchen, I am constantly searching for fun and creative recipes for when she is old enough. I really can not wait for that stage. Even though I absolutely love her as a newborn and infant, I do really look forward to her growing every single day.

I recently found some cute ideas, so I thought I would share them with you (and keep them here for future reference).

Most of these recipes have come from FamilyFun.com. I definitely recommend you check it out if you have not already.

One of my immediate favorites was the Pizza Mummies. It seems so easy, but so much fun for children. Even toddlers could do this... I think.

Ingredients:

English muffins

Pizza sauce

Black olives

Scallions

Red or green pepper

String cheese

Directions:

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. For each mummy, spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce onto half of the English muffin. (You can toast it first if you would like.)

Set olive slices in place for the eyes. Add round slices of green onion or bits of green or red pepper for the pupils.

Lay strips of the string cheese across the muffin for the mummy's wrappings.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the muffin is toasty.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Well, Meagan from Baby Swank has decided to offer all of my readers a chance to win one of fabulous products!

She just recently added some "Baby Bath Bombs" to her collection of goodies for our little bundles. I have tried her Baby Shampoo and Body Wash and absolutely love it! It is so soft on Baby A's skin. It smells absolutely delicious. AND it doesn't give Baby A little red spots like other soaps did!

Don't they look delicious!!

I had recently been searching around for some baby-friendly bubbles because Baby A absolutely loves to take bubble baths with me. She loves trying to grab the bubbles. She can not figure out why they just quish in her hands! "Silly girl, You can't actually pick them up!" -- Says the Mommy. But she does not care, she continues to try anyway. She slaps at them and plays with them. It makes bath time so much fun. However, I really worry about the things that I put on Baby A's skin. Especially since the whole red spot thing started.

Well, these bath bombs are NOT bubbles, but they are even better. You drop them in the tub while you child is in it and watch all the fizzies! That would be so much fun to watch the children try to grab those. I can picture Baby A just laughing her little head off like she does with just about everything else. I will definitely be purchasing these myself just because I know Baby A will love them.

YOU have a chance to win them yourself. All you have to do is click the Rafflecopter giveaway and fill it out! Easy Peasy!

<a href="http://rafl.es/enable-js">You need javascript enabled to see this giveaway</a>.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Mr. Man has finally been approved of some leave. I am looking for a few guest bloggers to cover the time that we will be in Scotland. We leave November 4th and will be away until the 13th. If you are interested in this, please email me at CajunBombshell1@yahoo.com.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

While Mr. Man was off for his two weeks before returning back to work, we went to the Pumpkin Patch with Baby A. We had a great time, and it was so much bigger than last year. There was such a vareity of pumpkins to choose from and many activities for the kids to do. Of course, Baby A is too small for any of them, but it was fun to watch other kids participating. They had ponies and a corn maze. Many food and homemade and handmade items. It was a lot of fun, and I am sad that this is our last year here to do these things, but I am thankful that Baby A was able to experience it even though she is still so little.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

I recently purchased some baby wash and shampoo from this Baby Swank. It is a small shop full of fun and eco-friendly things, like shampoo, body wash, bibs, wipes, and more!

I purchased a set of the sample size in the scents Rosemary Mint, Lavender Chamomile, and Lemon Peel. And I also purchased a large bottle of the Orange Vanilla. This stuff is absolutely amazing. It is natural, so it is great for sensitive skin. Anytime I would wash Baby A in Johnsons & Johnsons, she would get little red bumps on her. They would go away quite quickly but I hated to see the red marks on her skin. I finally decided to check out some work-at-home shops on Etsy to find something I would be willing to try out, and Baby Swank is perfect for us! I absolutely love, love, love every single fragrance. I thought the Orange Vanilla would be my favorite and Rosemary Mint would be my least favorite. However, Rosemary Mint is AMAZING. Never in a million years would I have ever thought I would say such a thing, but it is true. Such a great scent, so creative. We even travel with the sample sizes and they are perfect. I can not stop putting it all my daughter's skin. It smells delicious and lathers up greatly. If you are in the market for an all natural baby shampoo and body wash, this could be for you!

The first winner of the Aiko Art Nursing Necklace Giveaway never claimed this, so I am redrawing.

There were 45 entries for the Aiko Art Nursing Necklace Giveaway. Rafflecopter uses Random.org to choose a lucky winner.

The winner of this giveaway was lucky #7, which is

Kristin!

You have 48 hours to claim this prize by contacting me at my Facebook page, Life as a Cajun Bombshell. My email is no longer working at the moment, so I will send you a message on Facebook once you claim it to give you the information you need to claim this prize.

If this is unclaimed in 48 hours, I will randomly choose another winner!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

We took Baby A to the zoo just a few days after Mr. Man got home. We had a great time, and Baby A loved petting the animals. She stayed bundled up in her Daddy's arms for the majority of the time, but Mommy did get some time with her too!

Friday, October 7, 2011

It has almost been a week since Mr. Man finally got back. We did not tell anyone for several days because Mr. Man wanted some down time and family time before he made his phone calls and others called him. It is so nice to have him home and to see our daughter react to him the way she does!

The day of his homecoming was hectic. I got a call an hour before he was due to arrive to let me know what time he would be in. I could not believe it as I had just got out the shower and was still cleaning the house up. Needless to say, I dropped everything I was doing, got the baby dressed in her adorable outfit and threw me on some clothes and headed straight out the door. We arrived and met Mr. Man and it was all such a blur. It all happened so fast. I never had the time to get nervous, anxious, or impatient; which I guess is a good thing. Now that I look back, it all seems to be a blur. Which is why I am so glad that I had a photographer come with us to welcome him home. She took a lot of amazing shots, which I will post soon.

We chilled around the house for a few days and took Baby A to the zoo one day. Then we announced he was home. Baby A enjoyed the zoo and enjoyed being able to pet the animals. Hopefully I can get a few pictures up soon.

It started getting cold around here again, so we decided to make today a lazy day and let me catch up on school work and let Mr. Man, Baby A, and Mr. Buttons play around the house. It's been an extremely nice day! And hopefully the weekend will go just as well.

I am 100% Cajun, born and raised in Southwest Louisiana. I married my high school sweetheart at just 17 years of age on July 1, 2006. I live an Air Force life, following my husband around the world, only to experience what life has to offer. We have two beautiful daughters whom has helped in developing the people we have become. True love begins and never ends... and that is us!